Welcoming baby to country ceremony: The first 60,000 years
Ms Rose Gilby, Ms Jill Antonie and Uncle Jim Berg
(Rose): Good afternoon everyone, first of all, I would like to acknowledge the
traditional owners of the land that we meet upon today. I pay my respect to elders
past and present, and I know Aunty Di is not here, but what a beautiful start to the
day, to cry at a conference is great; always know it’s going to be good when it opens
my heart up right from the start. So today, we thought about this presentation and
Jill and I we actually coined it “Welcoming Baby to Country, the first 60,000 years”
[laugh in the background]. Because what we are going to talk about today is we’ve
designed this on cultural ways to re-emerge and re-imagine, cultural content for our
families in this modern world. And we are trying to find ways for our families to have
markers to be proud around identity -and I hope I don’t cry up here - I’m so
passionate about this and I’m so happy to be an academic and working in a place
that, we’re finding that we’re really socially; we want to be socially responsible
around the work we do, and we want to make sure that community comes along
with us, but also, add to our programs and design our programs for what they wanna
see, and what we actually want to teach to our emerging and professionals that are
out there. I’m a Wiradjuri woman proudly, married to Barkandji man I work in Latji
Latji Country and I do come down to the Kulin nation for my work and I am very, very
blessed to work with some really good people, and I will introduce my other
presenters.
(Jill): So, I work with Mildura Rural City Council, and got involved with this, we’re
now in our third, we’ve just done our third ceremony this NAIDOC week. It started
for me basically, the work I was doing, through a pilot program with Vic Health which
was Localities Enhancing Arts Participation (LEAP), so looking at arts interventions for
mental health prevention. So, Vic Health were really keen on modelling how arts
may work like football and other things in communities who maybe vulnerable to
later suffering from mental health issues. So, I found my partner in crime, and we
had very similar kind of goals even we were coming from different sectors; I come
from an Arts sector, and community development, so we started this when I was
there, and I then moved jobs to community cultural development, and when you
work in Council, they move you around, and now I’m a Place Making Officer, which is
a new term, and a bit of a newfangled kind of trend, but this is the one program that
has come with me for the three programs, because I’ve been able to convince my
leadership that its communities that make places, not buildings. So, it’s really strong
for me to embed community as making a place and claiming a space where we live.
Next one?
(Rose): Just as part of this process, we’ve actually been trying to harness champions,
and Uncle Jim crossed our path, and he’s one of our champions that are coming
along and really selling this around social and emotional wellbeing for us. So thank
you Uncle Jim, for being a part of our presentation today.
(Uncle Jim): It’s been a pleasure; it’s been a pure pleasure. My name is Jim Berg., I’m
a Gunditjmara man, and I got involved with this program “Welcome Baby to
Country” and my background, I spent 41 years in the legal system, Aboriginal Legal
Service, office of corrections, delivering programs inside to our mob, set up the
Stolen Generation involved in that, and at the moment I am teaching. On a Monday
with a very dedicated crew, cross-cultural programs for our kids in Parkville, former
Turana, which has been missing a big gap in their culture and their history. And, one
of the most important things in regards to health, is knowing who you are, what you
are, where you come from and the spirit within yourself, to make you stand up tall. A
lot of people in this country, they brought their culture, their heritage, spirituality, to
this land and they could lose it, by choice. We didn’t have any choice, because it was
taken away from us. Because if we practiced, any of them, we were punished. And
looking at this program and a lot of the other programs I’ve delivered in prisons, and
throughout the country, it’s bringing back culture to our people. The
acknowledgement that we’ve been here for sixty-thousand years. And that sixtythousand years represent this wall to that wall, and a little bit longer. A little bit
longer. And, when the wife and I received an invitation to be involved in this
“Welcome Baby to Country” took us all of a split second to say “Yes, were going!”
[laughter in the audience], because we saw that there was a need for people to
come together in partnership, and to develop and encourage our people to re-gain
and to practice their culture; who they are, and what they are. And it’s been done in
partnership, which is important. The acknowledgement that we do have a culture,
that we want to re-gain that culture, and that it’s only through programs, cultural
programs through schools, meetings like this, to make people aware that we’re still
around folks! And we ain’t going no place. So, that’s the message, and we should
work together to coordinate programs, to bring all of our peoples together; that’s
why we have “Welcome Baby to Country”. Starting from an early age, and I was one
of the three standing up on stage, handing out the little banners, headbands and
certificates. About a hundred, and just overwhelmed with the performance, because
it was done by the community, as partners. So that’s why I’m here, folks. To support
these two young ladies, cause I call them young ladies, because anything younger
than seventy-seven, they are young as far as I am concerned [laughter in audience].
Yeah, and they’ve taken it. So, thank you. (Applause)
(Rose): So, I guess for us, the start of this journey was we had an incidence of
suicides within our community. I’m gonna cry.
(Uncle Jim): No, that’s OK; let it go
(Rose): But it was a way forward; we needed a way forward, because we didn’t want,
our mob, to keep picking the choices that they had. And to feel like they had no
choices, but also around…
(Jill): I will speak with that with you while you can recover. The first one we did, the
Monday, this was the Thursday, the Monday that we had the suicide of someone
who was very close to me and my family, and we went to the family and said out of
respect, we’ll cancel. And they said to us –which will always resonate with me, it’s
even more reason to do it, and make sure you do it properly and do it well and do it
for him. And that was the year Deborah Cheetham worked with us, and she
dedicated a song to the family who actually only came to the one this year. So they
didn’t come to the first two, they came this year and gave us even more feedback
about, you know, why it was so important. But it was important for us, and I think
that is part of how we are trying to do it, is develop it alongside and take the lead
from community, go to that family, and say “you know, we will… what do you want
us to do?”, and they encourage us to do it for that reason, and Mildura continues to
be on the news, we are trying to reposition our place and reclaim; put a spotlight on
all the positive things, and celebrate things.
(Rose): And our spiel behind this is we want it to be strength-based, positive based
for communities, so the intervention that they have is long and lasting, and that they
tell other people around it, that Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal people and our families
are joining in on this process. We have a lot of non-Aboriginals mums that are
coming along now, which we’re over the moon about. We’ve had to go through a
process of designing, looking at designing this program with community helping us.
Around how they’ve see things in the past, and how I’ve done a bit of research
around –and did some work up in the, in the Territory, where, this is where I first
experienced it, and I was really interested for the mere fact that, when I go into
health, people just, heath wasn’t relevant. And the things that everyone of us do in
this room is not relevant to community; it’s up to us to make it that. And it’s up to us
to and whether we like it or not, we are the changers, because we are here, we’re
writing the things, we’re designing these programs for our mob, and we’re leaving
them out. And that was a really big thing for me, as an academic, to learn to listen
and to have some deep listening around this. Because our kids are important, and to
actually say to our families, “This is important”. The way we, I think we’ve designed it
over three years; it’s been a working process
(Jill): And we are very conscious that “Welcome Baby to Country” isn’t our concept.
It is a concept that other communities have done, but it is a concept that goes back
sixty-thousand years. It’s a learning process for us; we’ve been asked, “Is it
transferrable?” Yes, but with, in collaboration with your community, about how,
what’s important to them. We’ve designed ours to be very grand, and pompous and
ceremonial, and that’s been done with intent, because a few years ago Mildura
opened a brand-new open multi-million dollar theatre and arts centre. I was working
at the gallery at the time with the council, and we saw it as an opportunity to reclaim a colonized space. In Mildura I’ve had a time frame which I call B.C. and A.C.;
the “Chaffey’s” that arrived and colonized, and built things while all the history in
Mildura has been written about the Chaffey’s; so we wanted to… The Arts Centre is
built where the Chaffey’s homestead is, so we really kind of, you know, people said
“why don’t you do it outside in the bush?, and we said “no”. We want to re-invent
cultural traditions in the contemporary world, and we want to re-claim this space for
the community. So they know they can come there for the “Welcome Baby to
Country”, but they can go there and see “tap dancing”, or whatever it is, that this is
their space and that ownership around that; I guess for me is that place making
model, that places belong to people, not the other way around.
(Uncle Jim): To build up confidence, in one’s self. I am involved in the repatriation of
ancestors back to Country and that we are getting the entire Koorie and non-Koorie
community involved in this process. A lot of them have never been in a position to
see their ancestors returned to Country. We’ve prosecuted the University at one
stage, and they cooperated a hundred-and-ten percent in the repatriation. And this
is also part of culture, heritage; the history of this country. Our history, your history;
yeah. Because too often, our history is not taught; too often we are not treated as
equals; too often we have to go through the process of being put down, and these
kids, babies, are the next generation that’s going to stand up strong and move
forward into the future. And that’s what it’s all about folks. To do that, we have to
bring the past and the present so we can get on with the future. And to do that we
have to acknowledge what’s happened in this Country, Victoria. And that’s
important. We’ll no longer stand at the back; we stand side by side, and that is what
this is all about. Yeah, and this program, well, it was tearful to put it bluntly, yeah,
very, very tearful. And it was a little clip like this that wife and I just burst out crying,
because what it meant for our people and the future generations. Yeah.
(Jill): We’ve talked about this being a learning for us, and one of the things we’ve
approached this with great responsibility and an honour to do this in the community
we live in. I do it not only is my workplace, but I’m a grandmother of a Latji baby;
two year old, and so, our connection is much more than you know, it’s our paid job
to do. And we’re very protective of it as well, but we’ve also, it’s been lovely to have
a bit of humor around it. It is a celebration, we have a big fancy lunch afterwards and
everyone hangs out. But this year we had a dad return, oh! Dads! That’s it, we’ve
noticed. We haven’t done academic research on it, but we have noticed that the
dads are culturally present at the ceremony. It is often the dad who carries the baby
up the stage, so everyone sits in the audience, and we call the babies up and when
we name their names they come across, but it is often the dads who bring the kids
up, which is really nice. And then they would walk around with them all painted up
for the photos and things like that. But we’ve got one dad; he’s been a returning
dad, with a few babies [laughing with the audience], and he said to me “we’ve got a
window of opportunity between June and September to get into next year’s show
[laughter from audience] so, when he was leaving it was like “see you next year,
gotta get home” [laughter from audience]. But that’s a beautiful part of our
community that we can kind of laugh about this things and it is a joyous thing, you
know. I guess for me it’s a joyous, very much a joyous thing.
The other thing that’s been a phenomenal learning is, Aunty Beryl Carmichel has
been our respected elder from outside. We always have a traditional owner there,
and we’ll show you a clip where she talks but Aunty Beryl, is Barkandji, which is our
neighboring group. We invited her to come and we do a run-through of rehearsal the
night before, and we said to Aunty Beryl, we just invited you because we know you
are a great storyteller and do whatever you like and she goes “well, do you mind if I
sing a song?” and Rose and I were like “Whatever you want Aunt”. “Oh, well, my
mum went through ceremony and she’s got a song that is “Welcome Baby to
Country” song”. And so we, I uncover this cultural jewel that we didn’t even know it
existed, that she brought it and gave it us as a gift to her neighbors, the Latji mob,
and since we’ve made an animation of it and she sings it at each year event and
Aunty Beryl came this year two days after her eightieth birthday. So we get different
elders to come, we ask different people from our community to participate in either
a dance performance or music every year. And that’s what makes our “Welcome
Baby to Country” different and unique.
(Rose): We work with traditional owners but we have the relationship with the
traditional owners, it can be paralleled with other communities this working with
significant others within the community. We’re confident about that, cause we are
bringing in other people, the champions, or Uncle Jim, and Auntie Janine Wilson,
she’s very open about sharing this knowledge with everybody and making sure that
the message gets out. That people are not, we’re not welcoming, she’s not
welcoming people into the Latji Latji tribe; she’s actually inviting people to come into
the community and flourish and live. And that really enters into our ancient protocol
for us mob. That we have always needed to be invited into community and not just
go in and live, so it’s been a part of that re-emerging to, that we’ve been
decolonizing spaces, this re-emerging of ancient ways, and cultures, and practice,
and protocol around this.
(Jill): And the focus is on the baby. We’ve had babies two days old. We let kids who
might be toddlers or older if their sibling is getting welcomed. There are sibling
giving welcome; we don’t have an age limit. But we also have quiet a few, we work
with agencies and organizations up home, babies who are in protective custody, like
someone was referring to earlier, they may have been taken straight from the
hospital. We had one this year who was week old, but its not about the foster mum
or the parent, in that circumstances is about a baby who –no matter who they live
with - they are part of a community and this year it was really significant, and for me,
because organically, the elders stayed on stage and the babies stayed on stage, and,
I kind of phrase it like they got a good talking to from the elders about the
responsibility they have in front of them. And it wasn’t as individual parents, but as a
community responsibility that we all had to look after to these kids. Which was
completely organic, but for me, kind of stayed with me that kind of, you know,
reminded me when I used to get told off and, quite sternly put, that you have an
enormous responsibility and we’re here to support you, but take it seriously, and do
the best you can do, and we’ll help you. But, yeah… I think that is…
(Rose): One thing I want to leave you with is we know that there’s protective factors
in this; we do critical incidents within the town, and we’ve dealt with people who,
families who have gone through sudden infant death. After being through this
process, and the ceremony, the peace that it has brought families is, you know, to be
invited into community… [crying] and then we embrace them after this… that is
special. And if you can grow this in your community, around identity, because we
know this works. We know it’s a protective factor, and we know it through the
biggest part of loss. Take it, take it into your community. Ask them if they want to be
involved in this. We’ll come and help, we’ll come and incept it for you. And then you
run with it as you please, and how your community will shape it. We just want to
finish off with the deadly DVD.
(Jill): We’ve had a lot of interest from, we’ve seen growth in the broader community
coming to the event, so we can fit four, five hundred in the theater, so no tickets,
just everyone just comes in and this year we had a particular lot of media interest
and this is the outcome of that with ABC open.
DVD PLAYING: “Welcome Baby to Country” has been an important part within our
society so that everyone in the community knows that they’re a part of. And where
this child comes from and belongs [singing].
My role as an elder is to pass on part of our culture and our heritage, it’s not
welcoming them into the Latji Latji tribe, but it’s welcoming them into the
community. [music]
We are all part of one mob, one clan and we are many tribes. Doing the symbol on
the face is a traditional marking and it symbolizes a part of traditional dress for a
Ceremony, so, I will be using ochre. It’ll just be a small, simple mark across the face.
So that is part of that ancestry, and part of our heritage [applause]. So another
significant part of having “Welcome Baby to Country” it connects not only the baby,
but also it connects the family and connects the community. Even though we are
many tribes that have settled here on Latji Latji Country [music]. It is just one of the
ways that we are passing on our traditions, our cultures, our practices to the
community, and it is really great to connect the babies when they come. Walking
around and having a look at the faces, to bring this sense of pride to a community
with a simple action. A sense of pride has just been re-ignited. A sense of culture and
heritage has just been embraced, and it will go on from this generation for many
generations after [music].
Thank you.